DOCSLIB.ORG

DRESSING DIVERSITY: POLITICS of DIFFERENCE and the CASE of SCHOOL UNIFORMS Samantha Deane Loyola University Chicago in The

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
DRESSING DIVERSITY: POLITICS of DIFFERENCE and the CASE of SCHOOL UNIFORMS Samantha Deane Loyola University Chicago in The DRESSING DIVERSITY: POLITICS OF DIFFERENCE AND THE CASE OF SCHOOL UNIFORMS Samantha Deane Loyola University Chicago In The New York Times parenting blog, Motherlode, Debra Monroe writes about “the dynamic that makes public school democratic—a place to confront the humanity of others,” because she is concerned with what schooling teaches children about diversity and difference.1 This paper begins with a similar assumption and concern; I too think schools ought to be places where children learn to confront the humanity and difference of others, and I am concerned with how children are taught to do so. Through an analysis of school uniform policies and theories of social justice, I argue not that children consciously experience school uniforms as uniforming, but that school uniforms and their foregoing policies assume that confronting strangers—an imperative of living in a democratic polity—is something that requires seeing sameness instead of recognizing difference. Imbuing schooling with a directive that says schools ought to be places where children learn to confront the humanity of others requires that we ask questions about how educational policies teach children to deal with human difference. Broadly speaking, uniform policies undergird the assumption that a child’s capacity to confront difference is unimportant.2 To consider the ways in which school uniform policies unjustly teach children to disregard difference so that they can reasonably participate in public and school life, this paper engages in a rich conversation about social justice. Fundamentally, social justice is about recognizing grave injustices between individual persons and groups of people living in, or being prevented from living in, the world. The works of John Rawls, Iris Marion Young, and Nancy Fraser represent three common theoretical constructs for dealing with social justice. Rawls comes from a social contract position and constructs a floating theory of justice based on a Kantian self that ultimately addresses injustices by way of redistribution.3 Young aligns herself with critical theory, founds her critique in the messiness of the “real world,” and tackles injustice by 1 Debra Monroe, “When Elite Parents Dominate Volunteers, Children Lose.” Motherlode (blog), New York Times (January 19, 2014), http://nyti.ms/19EIwRF. 2 I am purposefully not differentiating between public and private schooling, because all schooling situated in a democratic context ought to teach children to confront the humanity of others. Moreover, children are a part of the larger “public” in a Deweyan sense. 3 John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, ed. Erin Kelly (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001). © 2015 Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society 112 Deane – Dressing Diversity advocating for a politics of difference.4 All the while, Fraser works out a bivalent conception of social justice that bridges the divide between the spheres of distribution and recognition.5 Rawls’s Justice as Fairness: A Restatement is the theoretical backdrop against which this paper employs Young’s Justice and the Politics of Difference and Fraser’s “Social Justice in the Age of Identity Politics: Redistribution, Recognition, and Participation” to speak to the ways in which diversity can and should be “undressed,” and therefore, “addressed” by children in school. To “address” diversity, the first section of this paper will focus on the language of school uniform policies. Policy makers tell us that school uniform policies are meant to: minimize disruptive behavior, remove socioeconomic tension, and maintain high academic standards.6 There is nothing unjust about wanting to reduce socioeconomic difference, nor valuing high academic standards. What is unjust is that these policies do not remove socioeconomic difference, nor cure disruptive behavior. School uniform policies dress difference; they do not address it. Accordingly, in an attempt to “undress” difference, and, perhaps, “redress” the injustice of school uniform policies, the second section of this paper argues that schools ought to be places where children are confronted with the humanity of others. The argument is that removing uniforms should not be a mere undressing that leaves children to deal with difference and humiliation on their own, but that we must redress the injustice by philosophically resituating schooling. Finally, the concluding section will sketch out what it might mean to philosophically resituate schools and to think of school life as a reflection of city life where, “the public is heterogeneous, plural, and playful, a place where people witness and appreciate the diverse cultural expressions that they do not share and do not fully understand.”7 Schools in this vision are not apolitical sanctuaries where children develop into perfect rational subjects; rather, schools are messy, vibrant, lively, worlds where children both constitute and come to know the diverse world and public(s) that surround them. Dressing Diversity: The School Uniform Policy A policy bulletin from Los Angeles states: “The Los Angeles Unified School District believes that appropriate student dress contributes to a 4 Iris Marion Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990). 5 Nancy Fraser, “Social Justice in the Age of Identity Politics: Redistribution, Recognition, and Participation.” Tanner Lecture Series, Stanford University (April 30– May 2, 1996), http://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to-z/f/Fraser98.pdf. 6 David L. Brunsma, “School Uniforms in Public Schools,” National Association of Elementary School Principals (January/February 2006), 50. 7 Young, Politics of Difference, 241. PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES IN EDUCATION – 2015/Volume 46 113 productive learning environment.”8 While a policy from Pitt County states: “The implementation of school uniforms will help minimize disruptive behavior, promote respect for oneself and others, build school/community spirit, and, more significantly, help to maintain high academic standards.”9 Most school uniform policies echo these sentiments. They appear to originate from a genuine desire for students to succeed academically, and/or a need to improve behavior and safety. Yet, the history of asking students to appear one way or another is a story of mingled concerns about academic achievement, juvenile delinquency, gender appropriateness, race relations, and gang affiliation.10 Ines Dussel historically situates these concerns within a broad trend toward institutional organization and control of people who pivot around the “axis of difference.”11 According to Dussel, “such policies were tied to the disciplining of ‘unruly’, ‘savage’, ‘untamed’ bodies, that is, the bodies of those who were not able to perform self‐regulation or self‐government: women, Black, Indian, poor classes, immigrants, toddlers or infants.”12 In Young’s language, the victims of cultural imperialism are frozen “into a being marked as other,” while the dominant group occupies a universal “unmarked” position.13 The impetus to uniform is at once entangled in a project to mark or dress difference and to extend the “universalized” position to the “other.”14 The policy trend toward institutional control vis-à-vis school uniform policies is enmeshed in the desire for definition and regulation of student’s personal bodies and is a means to regulate and define children’s relationships with one another. School uniform policies are not merely concerned with what one wears, but are a part of how we organize schools and the students therein. These policies are an attempt to make schools safer and better, to regulate what happens, and who affiliates with whom. A District of Columbia uniform policy hints at these underlying tensions by taking measures to define what “uniform” means within the policy: “The term ‘uniform,’ for the purposes of a mandatory uniform policy, is defined as clothing of the same style and/or color and 8 Jim Morris, “Student Dress Codes/Uniforms,” Los Angeles Unified School District Policy Bulletin, BUL-2549.1 (December 2009), 1. 9 Ibid. 10 Wendell Anderson, “School Dress Codes and Uniform Policies,” Policy Report (ERIC Clearinghouse on Education Management), no. 4 (2002), 4. Anderson briefly captures this history in the synopsis of his policy report. 11 Ines Dussel, “When Appearances Are Not Deceptive: A Comparative History of School Uniforms in Argentina and the United States (Nineteenth–Twentieth Centuries),” Paedagogica Historica 41, no. 1–2 (2005): 191. 12 Ibid. 13 Young, Politics of Difference, 123. 14 To this point, Dussel, notes that elite, private, “preppy” school dress was extended down, as it were, to public mass schooling and has become the school uniform we are familiar with today, e.g. khaki pants and Oxford shirts. 114 Deane – Dressing Diversity standard look, as agreed upon by the school community.”15 Nonetheless, a definition of “uniform” does little to draw attention away from the fact that the policy is asking all children to appear the same. The concluding advice from a US Department of Education policy report for drafting a uniform policy reads: “when they are justified by a school’s circumstances, wisely conceived in collaboration with the community, and coupled with appropriate interventions, dress codes and school uniforms may positively influence school climate, student behavior, and academic success. However, it is critical to keep such polices in proper perspective and avoid overestimating or exaggerating their potential benefits.”16
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Science of Diversity and the Impact of Implicit Bias
    The Science of Diversity and the Impact of Implicit Bias Hannah Valantine, MD NIH Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity ~ National Institutes of Health ~ / Office of the Director Scientific Workforce Diversity Use of This Module • This presentation presents information about scientific workforce diversity and factors that contribute to limiting diversity, including implicit bias • Viewing this presentation is not a substitute for broader efforts to reduce implicit bias and its negative outcomes on scientific career advancement • Please contact us with questions: [email protected] Presentation Outline • Why diversity? – Diverse is a driving force for excellence and innovation – Defining diversity – Lack of diversity in science: the evidence • Hurdles to diversity: Implicit bias – Pervasiveness of implicit bias – Evidence – Strategies for overcoming bias Why Diversity Matters Capitalizing on the Opportunity • Excellence, creativity, innovation • Broadening scope of inquiry - solutions to complex problems of health and disease • Impact of workforce diversity on health disparities • Ensuring fairness – Changing demographics – Leveraging the entire U.S. intellectual capital Capturing the Benefits of Diversity Identity is a Proxy for Cognitive Diversity *Underrepresented Thinking Populations in U.S. Language Ethnicity*Ethnicity Religion Style Biomedical, Clinical, Behavioral and Social Science Research Perspectives ExperiencesNationality* Nationality GeographyGender* Physical RaceRace* Culture Skills SocioeconomicGender Status*
    [Show full text]
  • The Issue of Diversity and Multiculturalism in Japan
    Jie Qi & Sheng Ping Zhang The Issue of Diversity and Multiculturalism in Japan THE ISSUE OF DIVERSITY AND MULTICULTURALISM IN JAPAN Jie Qi Utsunomiya University, Japan Sheng Ping Zhang Meijo University, Japan Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association March 24-29, 2008 New York In Session: Internationalization and Globalization in the Curriculum 1 Jie Qi & Sheng Ping Zhang The Issue of Diversity and Multiculturalism in Japan THE ISSUE OF DIVERSITY AND MULTICULTYRALISM IN JAPAN The purpose of this paper is to problematize that which has been taken for granted about the notion of multiculturalism in Japan. Multiculturalism is a novel issue in Japan. As the Japanese government started to promote “internationalization” since 1980’s, slogans such as “international exchange,” “cultural exchange,” “understanding of other cultures,” etc, have become the most popular hackneyed expressions among policy maker and educators. This paper demonstrates that the notion of multiculturalism in Japan is intricately and deeply embedded in Japanese society, Japanese culture and the Japanese educational system and that this type of multiculturalism excludes ethnic groups which have lived in Japan since old times. Firstly, the intention in this study is to interrupt the assumptions about homogeneous nation in Japanese educational discourse as have been accepted since the end of World War II. I assert that Japan is not homogeneous nation rather a society with diverse cultural groups. Secondly, this paper traces the path of the past notion of multiculturalism as embodied in the Japanese political, social and cultural conditions. In undertaking this I first look at the way cultural studies emerged in the 1980’s which created a new image of cultural studies.
    [Show full text]
  • The State of Racial Diversity in the Educator Workforce 2016
    THE STATE OF RACIAL DIVERSITY IN THE EDUCATOR WORKFORCE 2016 THE STATE OF RACIAL DIVERSITY IN THE EDUCATOR WORKFORCE JULY 2016 POLICY AND PROGRAM STUDIES SERVICE OFFICE OF PLANNING, EVALUATION AND POLICY DEVELOPMENT U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION i U.S. Department of Education John B. King, Jr. Secretary Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development Amy McIntosh Delegated Duties of Assistant Secretary Policy and Program Studies Service Jennifer Bell-Ellwanger Director July 2016 This report is in the public domain. Authorization to reproduce it in whole or in part is granted. While permission to reprint this publication is not necessary, the citation should be U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Policy and Program Studies Service, The State of Racial Diversity in the Educator Workforce, Washington, D.C. 2016. This report is available on the Department’s website at http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/highered/racial-diversity/state-racial-diversity- workforce.pdf. Availability of Alternate Formats Requests for documents in alternate formats such as Braille or large print should be submitted to the Alternate Format Center by calling 202-260-0852, or by contacting the 504 coordinator via e-mail at [email protected]. Notice to Limited English Proficient Persons If you have difficulty understanding English you may request language assistance services for Department information that is available to the public. These services are available free of charge. If you need more information about interpretation or translation services, please call 1-800-USA-LEARN (1-800-872-5327) (TTY: 1-800-437-0833), or e-mail us at [email protected].
    [Show full text]
  • Issues of Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Diversity in Preparing School Administrators Carolyn Ridenour University of Dayton, [email protected]
    University of Dayton eCommons Educational Leadership Faculty Publications Department of Educational Leadership 2001 Issues of Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Diversity in Preparing School Administrators Carolyn Ridenour University of Dayton, [email protected] Patricia F. First University of Dayton Angela Lydon University of Dayton Michelle C. Partlow University of Dayton Follow this and additional works at: http://ecommons.udayton.edu/eda_fac_pub Part of the Educational Leadership Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Gender Equity in Education Commons, Higher Education Commons, and the Race and Ethnicity Commons eCommons Citation Ridenour, Carolyn; First, Patricia F.; Lydon, Angela; and Partlow, Michelle C., "Issues of Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Diversity in Preparing School Administrators" (2001). Educational Leadership Faculty Publications. 83. http://ecommons.udayton.edu/eda_fac_pub/83 This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Educational Leadership at eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Educational Leadership Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Issues of Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Diversity in Preparing School Administrators Carolyn S. Ridenour, Patricia F. First Angela Lydon, and Michelle C. Partlow There are very real differences between us of race, age, and sex. But it is not those differences between us that are separating us . It is rather our refusal to recognize those differences, and to examine the distortions that result from our misnaming them and their effects upon human behavior and expectations. -Audra Lorde (1995, p. 285) The four of us teach in the Department of Educational Leadership at the Uni­ versity of Dayton.
    [Show full text]
  • How Would You Define Diversity? Open-Ended Responses from Student-Conducted Survey, 28 April 2010
    How would you define diversity? Open-ended responses from student-conducted survey, 28 April 2010 A wide range of interests, backgrounds, experiences. Differences among groups of people and individuals based on ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, gender, exceptionalities, language, religion, sexual orientation, and geographical area. Diversity of experiences, viewpoints, backgrounds, and life experiences. Tolerance of thought, ideas, people with differing viewpoints, backgrounds, and life experiences. Diversity can be measured across many variables -- age, race, sex, economics, geography, religion, philosophy, etc. variation in race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, political leanings, professional and personal background Diversity in graduate school includes a group of people from different backgrounds (this can be many things not just racial). People with different skills and career interests and hobbies. People with different political points of view. Anything that sets one individual apart from another. However, often it is used to specifically reference gender, race, ethnicity, and more recently sexual orientation differences. Diversity is differences in racial and ethnic, socioeconomic, geographic, and academic/professional backgrounds. People with different opinions, backgrounds (degrees and social experience), religious beliefs, political beliefs, sexual orientations, heritage, and life experience. dissimilar My definition of diversity would include openness to differences among people, cultures and perspectives. Having a multitude of people from different backgrounds and cultures together in the same environment working for the same goals. difference in students' background, especially race and gender. variability of perspectives, people, backgrounds, skin color, language, age, sex in a group or community. Diversity involves having people from a variety of cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds consortium of different perspectives Differences in characteristics of humans.
    [Show full text]
  • Diversity at Work: MAKING the MOST out of INCREASINGLY DIVERSE SOCIETIES  1
    FOCUS ON Diversity at work: MAKING THE MOST OUT OF INCREASINGLY DIVERSE SOCIETIES 1 September 2020 http://www.oecd.org OECD societies and workforces are becoming more and more diverse. Over the past two decades, the labour market participation of women has increased strongly; the population shares of migrants and their children are growing in almost all OECD countries; and more LGBTI people are open about their sexual orientation. Ensuring that groups that historically have been under-represented or disadvantaged in the labour market and society can participate fully is now more essential than ever. Preliminary evidence suggests that the COVID-19 crisis has had a disproportionate impact on some diverse groups, especially migrants and ethnic minorities. The death of George Floyd and the global “Black Lives Matter” movement have placed at the centre of the policy debate long-standing issues of discrimination and disadvantage against ethnic minorities. Full participation of diverse groups is not only an ethical imperative, it makes great sense also from an economic and social cohesion perspective. The economic case to justify measures promoting diversity and inclusion thus supplements the social justice obligation to promote inclusion and equal opportunity. There is a clear need to better understand under what conditions governments and employers can ensure inclusion, thereby harnessing the potential of a diverse populations more effectively. This policy brief assesses how OECD countries can be equipped to make the most out of diversity and ensure equality of opportunity. Key findings OECD societies and workforces have become increasingly diverse over the past decades; women’s participation in the labour market has increased significantly, the numbers of immigrants and people from ethnic minorities have increased virtually everywhere and more LGBTI people are open about their sexual orientation.
    [Show full text]
  • We Have a Problem with Political Diversity”
    “We Have a Problem with Political Diversity” THE PROBLEM We are a political monoculture that’s intolerant of different views. We claim to welcome all ​ perspectives, but are quick to attack—often in mobs—anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology. We throw labels that end in *obe and *ist at each ​ ​ ​ ​ other, attacking each other’s character rather than their ideas. We do this so consistently that employees are afraid to say anything when they disagree with what’s around them politically. HR has told me that this is not a rare concern, and I’ve ​ personally gotten over a hundred messages to that effect. Your colleagues are afraid because they know that they — not their ideas — will be attacked. They know that all the talk of “openness to different perspectives” does not apply to causes of “social justice,” immigration, “diversity”, and “equality.” On this issues, you can either keep quiet or sacrifice your reputation and career. These are not fears without cause. Because we tear down posters welcoming Trump supporters. We regularly propose removing Thiel from our board because he supported Trump. We’re quick to suggest firing people who turn out to be misunderstood, and even quicker to conclude our colleagues are bigots. We have made “All Lives Matter” a fireable offense. We put Palmer Luckey through a witch hunt because he paid for anti-Hillary ads. We write each other ad-hoc feedback in the PSC tool for having “offensive” ideas. We ask HR to investigate those who dare to criticize Islam’s human rights record for creating a “non inclusive environment.” And they called me a transphobe when I called out our corporate art for being politically radical.
    [Show full text]
  • Stand with Our Asian-American Community Against Hate!
    THE CORONAVIRUS DOESN’T DISCRIMINATE AND NEITHER SHOULD WE Stand with our Asian-American Community Against Hate! Do you know Asian Americans are being harassed, injured, and blamed for the Coronavirus pandemic? o “Never come back. Don’t ever come back,” an Indiana gas station store clerk said angrily to an oncologist on his way home from work. The oncologist told the clerk he was born in Kentucky and had not been out of the U.S. for years. o A 26-year-old woman on the way to her gym in San Francisco was spat on the face by a man who screamed after a passing bus, “Run them over!” o A father and his 2- and 6-year old children were stabbed in a retail grocery store by a man who accused them of spreading the coronavirus. o The Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center 2020 received nearly 1,500 reports of verbal and physical harassment within its first month of opening. What Is A Hate Crime? What is the Emotional Impact of Hate? "Any Unlawful action against the person or property Fear, loss of a sense of safety, avoidance of public of another committed substantially because of the places, post-traumatic stress disorder, fear for one’s victim's actual or perceived race, color, religion, children. They are also called “Message Crimes” ancestry, national origin, disability, gender or sexual because uninvolved members of the target group orientation". thousands of miles away from the original incident (California State Law/City of Davis Website) can feel the contempt of the perpetrator.
    [Show full text]
  • Preventing Race-Based Discrimination and Supporting Cultural Diversity in the Workplace an Evidence Review: Full Report
    Preventing race-based discrimination and supporting cultural diversity in the workplace An evidence review: full report Ms Brigid Trenerry, Ms Hayley Franklin & Dr Yin Paradies © Copyright Victorian Health Promotion Foundation 2012 ISBN: 978-1-921822-07-0 March 2012 Publication Number: P-033-GEN_B Suggested citation Trenerry B, Franklin H & Paradies Y 2012. Preventing race-based discrimination and supporting cultural diversity in the workplace (An evidence review: full report). Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Melbourne, Australia. Acknowledgements Thanks to Dr Karin Maeder-Han for tabulating data, Dr Reza Hasmath for advice and Associate Professor Santina Bertone for reviewing this report. Creating Healthy Workplaces evidence review series VicHealth commissioned five international evidence reviews to build a body of evidence and knowledge about effective workplace health interventions. Both full and summary reports are available for each of the five evidence reviews: • Preventing race-based discrimination and supporting cultural diversity in the workplace • Preventing violence against women in the workplace • Reducing alcohol-related harm in the workplace • Reducing prolonged sitting in the workplace • Reducing stress in the workplace www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/workplace Preventing race-based discrimination and supporting cultural diversity in the workplace An evidence review: full report March 2012 Ms Brigid Trenerry, Ms Hayley Franklin & Dr Yin Paradies Melbourne School of Population Health The University of Melbourne Contents Executive
    [Show full text]
  • Why Doesn't Diversity Training Work?
    uncommon sense in offering training to faculty and students, and even mandate it (29% of all schools require faculty to undergo training), is par- Why Doesn’t Diversity ticularly surprising given that the research on Training Work? the poor performance of training comes out of academia. Imagine university health cen- The Challenge for Industry ters continuing to prescribe vitamin C for the common cold. and Academia Corporate antibias training was stimu- lated by the civil rights movement of the Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev 1950s and 1960s and legal reforms that movement brought about. Federal agen- cies took the lead, and by the end of 1971, tarbucks’ decision to put 175,000 work- the Social Security Administration had put Sers through diversity training on May 29, 50,000 staffers through racial bias training. in the wake of the widely publicized arrest By 1976, 60 percent of big companies of- of two black men in a Philadelphia store, fered equal-opportunity training. In the put diversity training back in the news. But 1980s, as Reagan tried to tear down affir- corporations and universities have been do- mative action regulations and appointed ing diversity training for decades. Nearly Clarence Thomas to run the Equal Employ- all Fortune 500 companies do training, and ment Opportunity Commission, trainers be- two-thirds of colleges and universities have gan to make a business case for what they training for faculty according to our 2016 called “diversity training.” They argued that survey of 670 schools. Most also put fresh- women and minorities would soon be the men through some sort of diversity session backbone of the workforce and that em- as part of orientation.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding the Impact of Unconscious Bias in a University Setting: a Module for Faculty and Staff at Brown
    UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF UNCONSCIOUS BIAS IN A UNIVERSITY SETTING: A MODULE FOR FACULTY AND STAFF AT BROWN DISCUSSION GUIDE Using This Guide This guide is divided into five main sections: 1) Opening the discussion, 2) Why we’re focusing on unconscious bias, 3) Discussing key concepts and learning points from the e-learning module, 4) Helpful discussion questions to help guide your conversation, and 5) Action orientation and continuing the discussion. If time allows, please try to touch on each of these sections with your group. To help participants get the most from their experience with the e-learning module and the discussion, we strongly encourage your audience to complete at least two of the Implicit ​ ​ Associations Test to create the opportunity for self-reflection. However, we do not recommend ​ asking your audience to share their results of the IAT with you or the group during the discussion as this may keep people from fully participating. Important reminder: The priority in these discussion groups is not necessarily to focus on ​ the IATs themselves, but on the self-reflection that taking IATs coupled with the e-learning module triggered for individuals. Please also remember it is not your responsibility to explain or defend the IATs. Your job is to keep the communication open and flowing. However, if individuals have questions regarding the IAT, please refer to any of the resources listed at the end of this guide. Individuals may want to focus on the test itself, individual results, the mechanics of the test, or its validity. As such, it is important that you, as a facilitator, provide room for discussion of these issues, but also identify opportunities to guide conversation to a broader discussion of bias and how it affects human interaction and decision-making.
    [Show full text]
  • The Four I's of Oppression
    THE FOUR "I's" OF OPPRESSION Ideological Oppression First, any oppressive system has at its core the idea that one group is somehow better than another, and in some measure has the right to control the other group. This idea gets elaborated in many ways-- more intelligent, harder working, stronger, more capable, more noble, more deserving, more advanced, chosen, normal, superior, and so on. The dominant group holds this idea about itself. And, of course, the opposite qualities are attributed to the other group--stupid, lazy, weak, incompetent, worthless, less deserving, backward, abnormal, inferior, and so on. Institutional Oppression The idea that one group is better than another group and has the right to control the other gets embedded in the institutions of the society--the laws, the legal system and police practice, the education system and schools, hiring policies, public policies, housing development, media images, political power, etc. When a woman makes two thirds of what a man makes in the same job, it is institutionalized sexism. When one out of every four African-American young men is currently in jail, on parole, or on probation, it is institutionalized racism. When psychiatric institutions and associations “diagnose” transgender people as having a mental disorder, it is institutionalized gender oppression and transphobia. Institutional oppression does not have to be intentional. For example, if a policy unintentionally reinforces and creates new inequalities between privileged and non-privileged groups, it is considered institutional oppression. Interpersonal Oppression The idea that one group is better than another and has the right to control the other, which gets structured into institutions, gives permission and reinforcement for individual members of the dominant group to personally disrespect or mistreat individuals in the oppressed group.
    [Show full text]